This invention relates to a media positioning means for a machine like a printer for independently feeding a plurality of record media to a print station in the printer; the record media may be positioned in side by side relationship or in overlapping relationship at the print station.
In order to make certain business machines, like accounting machines, more versatile, it is necessary that such machines be capable of printing on a variety of record media or forms. Some of the record media to be printed upon are continuous forms, and others are manually inserted forms like ledger cards, passbooks, and the like. In certain situations it may be desirable to print the same information simultaneously or in one operation on two or more record media which are inserted in the machine.
Some prior art media positioning means are shown in the following U.S. Patent Nos.
3,426,345; -- 3,653,483; and 3,553,649; -- 3,684,076.
A German laid-open Application No. 2,118,414 discloses a record feeding mechanism in which a record material is held by electromagnetically operated clamps which are fixed to a bar whose ends are carried by a pair of endless belts; however, this prior art mechanism does not appear to be capable of independently feeding a plurality of record media to a print station so as to enable such media to be independently positioned in side by side relationship or in overlapping relationship at a print station as is done with the media positioning means of the present invention.
The media positioning means of the present invention is also simple to manufacture, is economical to produce, and can be readily incorporated in a variety of machines like printers, accounting machines, or other business machines.